Picks of the Week – The Best In Big Data

If you’ve forgotten to rummage through your news sources this week, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. Before you head out for the weekend, take a few minutes to catch up the latest and greatest in big data and tech news, so you can be “in the know” at happy hour.

Apple’s #WWDC14 Reveals New OS

Monday, at the World Wide Developer’s Conference, Apple introduced updated operating systems for desktop and mobile. Equipped with a new interface, and designed to work together simultaneously – thus, the unveiling of Apple’s new Continuity feature. Similarly, Apple’s new iCloud Drive will allow users to store files online and access across devices. OS X Yosemite will include a customizable notification center, revised mail app, and updates to Safari that promise smarter streaming and faster yet simpler performance. In iOS 8, we’ll see more interactive notifications that allow users to respond right from the notification center, a keyboard equipped with predictive-typing suggestions, a new health-monitoring app dubbed HealthKit, and the proximity-aware app iBeacon, Apple’s portable transmitter that notifies other iOS 7 devices of its presence. The new Mac systems will release as free updates in the fall.

John Oliver Breaks The FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website comes to a screeching halt as advocates of strong net neutrality protections flood the site with thousands of disgruntled (a lot hilarious, some disturbing) comments. The FCC has received more than 64,000 comments regarding the issue – 22,000 comments this week alone, which single-handedly undermined the web-based commenting system with a few technical difficulties. Fingers are pointing towards comedian John Oliver as the culprit behind the crash. On Sunday, HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” host went on a 13-minute rantabout net neutrality, ending with a plea to Internet trolls to “focus your indiscriminate rage in a useful direction.”

“Net neutrality remains a blistering battle between the American people and the FCC.”

#HadoopSummit

The three-day Hadoop Summit conference came to a close today in San Jose, California, hosted by Yahoo and key Apache Hadoop provider Hortonworks. Gaining popularity in the industry, this year’s lineup included notable thought leaders, data scientists, and developers, with more than 80 sponsoring organizations and over 3,000 participants, nearly doubling its audience from 2013. Representatives from Red Hat, AT&T, Teradata Labs and Yahoo were among some of the top guests in attendance. Informatica Corporation unveiled its Informatica Power Center Big Data Edition and Data Quality Big Data Edition, set to run on the newly announced HPD 2.1. In addition, Inhi Cho Suh, Vice President of IBM Big Data Integration & Governance lit up the crowd with IBM’s Big SQL 3.0 Beta, promising to take SQL to uncharted areas.

Rideshare Disputes Escalate

Despite the official ban on the rideshare service, Lyft and Uber have boldly launched in Austin. Just days after Lyft took the leap of faith into restricted territory, Uber followed suit. Uber operates similarly to Lyft, connecting passengers to drivers through their smartphone app. Users can login, view drivers in their area, and request a ride, and can even view rates for their city and get a quote before committing. To promote its services, Uber is offering free rides for a limited time and has begun operations in Miami and Orlando, both of which have controversial ride-sharing regulations against the company. Despite local laws, both startups are willing to take their negotiations out of city hall and directly into the hands of the public, with a lot of media hype along the way. What’s your position? Use #AUSTINNEEDSUBER to join the conversation.

Microsoft vs. Malware

Microsoft attempts to find common ground with adware companies by implementing the Malware Protection Center. This tech do-gooder has approached the adware industry to negotiate on a set of guidelines that, if abided by, would place the cooperating adware company on a list of approved vendors under these guidelines: ads opened by these programs must include the name of its creator, and obvious means to close the ad, and a standard uninstall method for the user. In turn, these ads will not be flagged by anti-malware solutions, alleviating pre-existing technological bypasses. Microsoft has announced that the guidelines, regardless of acceptance within the industry, will come into effect July 1.